At 8-8, Draft-Gap softball game ends in darkness

BUFFALO GAP – After seven innings of back-and-forth softball, the Stuarts Draft at Buffalo Gap game was called because of darkness, with the teams tied 8-8.

Plate umpire Russell Heinrich said he would have to check the Shenandoah District rules to see if the teams were allowed to continue the game when the two meet at Stuarts Draft on May 1. If not, the game will be declared a tie.

Draft entered the seventh inning trailing 6-5 but scored three times to take the lead.

After striking out her first three trips to the plate, Deborah Black lined one over the second baseman to score Courtney Walton, who had doubled to lead off the inning. Black had two strikes on her when she got the game-tying hit.

"I had zero confidence to begin with," said Black. "I went up to Coach Randy (Ross) and said, 'What am I doing wrong?' He told me I just needed to keep my head on it the last couple of feet."

Black had asked to bunt the ball, but fouled it off with one strike.

"I was just thinking, 'I can do all things through Christ,' " said Black. "I was thinking, 'I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.' When I got on, I was so happy."

Black then used her base-running skills when she advanced to second on a wild pitch and kept going to third.

"Good, smart base running," said Ross of his second baseman.

Kayla Shanks then knocked in Black to give Draft the lead before scoring on a wild pitch three batters later as the Cougars took an 8-6 lead.

But the Bison weren't finished. With Shelby Digman and Callie Fowler on second and third, respectively, Sierra Clifton came to the plate with two outs.

Clifton ripped a two-RBI triple, her second of the game, to tie the game. To make the hit even more impressive, it was very dark when she came to the plate. The softball field, unlike the baseball field, doesn't have lights.

"It wasn't a lot of trouble," said Clifton. "I could see it. More nerves."

Before Clifton came to the plate, Ross had brought in Brynn Kennedy, a freshman, to pitch, who relieved Rendy Dressler. Kennedy was Draft's third pitcher of the game.

"Basically (she threw) the same stuff," Clifton said of Kennedy. "She was a little faster, but nothing I've not hit before."

With Clifton at third, Kennedy fielded Emily Chandler's grounder back up the middle and threw to first for the third out of the inning.

The umpires and coaches then met and decided it was too dark to continue.

Draft led 5-0 after 3 ½ innings, getting a solo homer from Lois Carpenter, back after missing one game with an injury, and a two-RBI single by Courtney Walton. Draft also scored two in the first on a wild pitch and a walk, both with the bases loaded.

Gap rallied in the bottom of the fourth with five runs. Clifton had her first triple of the game, scoring two runs, in the inning, while Amber Stokes, Emily Chandler and Kieland Chandler also had run-scoring hits to tie the game 5-5.

"Slow start," said Gap coach Dawn Sheets. "We had some opportunities early. We left too many runners on early. We've got to capitalize on those moments and we didn't. But they showed a lot of heart by coming back and sticking with it."

The Bison took the lead on a solo blast by Katy Simmons in the fifth, before the Cougars took the lead , temporarily, in the seventh.